[Limpkin] decided to give the whole embedded business card thing a try. Here is his finished project, a low-profile mass storage business card that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Sure, the $6 price tag could score him a hundred paper cards, but those don’t light up like this one does!
The main components on the card include an AVR microcontroller, a flash memory chip, and an ESD protection chip. The latter is to make sure a static shock on the USB connector doesn’t zap the MCU. Speaking of, he went with an AT90USB162 which runs from an external 8 Mhz oscillator. Sure, it’s not the fastest thing out there, but since there’s only 16 Mb of flash on this card we don’t think you’ll notice any data transfer delay. The processor is running the LUFA stack and has two flavors of firmware. One that enumerates as an HID keyboard to automatically use keyboard shortcuts to launch a browser and load up his website. The other implements a mass storage device.
If you don’t like the electronic route, you could always go with some laser cut metal. We’ve heard that [Kevin Mitnick’s] business card has snap-out lock picking tools kind of like these.
Typo? Is it [Limpkin] as in the subject, or [Linkin] as in the text?
Yep…
few mistakes in the text:
– it has 16Mb of flash
– it created 2 firmwares: one with mass storage using LUFA, and another one with HID using teensy code
It doesn’t even have 16Mb of flash, which would be a preposterous amount of flash on an uC like that. No, it has 16Kb of flash as I suspected and a quick Google confirmed.
Gene: The uc is 16kb, but he’s got an external 16mbit flash chip on the card as well (= 2 mbyte)
I think these are neat projects but the biggest problem is that USB ports are vectors for malware. You have to really trust the device and the person. Imagine a situation where someone (job applicant or someone else in the industry) gives you a USB card. It infects your computer/network and sends back confidential information about you and your company.
Why drop things in the parking lot when you can hand them to people directly?
http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/07/09/2317239/criminals-distribute-infected-usb-sticks-in-parking-lot
Because then they don’t know what you look like?
True. Although for some jobs, a USB business card that successfully infects a system a potential employer believes to be secure, would be the ULTIMATE résumé. ;)
Does if have NFC (Near Field Communication)?
Looks cool. I am impressed.
Damn, just my thoughts.
It would be cool if you could just tap people’s cell phones and they’d have your info.
ESD Protection on the USB? On a board that has so many exposed parts? Sounds like overkill or underkill, depending on how you roll.